Durarara!!×2

Episode 9

Because we spend so much time hanging out with his good friends, it's been a while since we've seen anyone react rationally to Shizuo's powers. It's a hilarious wakeup call to the true insanity of his condition, when we see a thug in the Awakusu syndicate try to explain the not-bartender's "situation" to his boss. Shizuo is now suspected of killing multiple members of the syndicate and kidnapping the head honcho's daughter, and these professional criminals are still too terrified to go after Ikebukuro's gentle juggernaut. (He's not such a bad guy! He really hates violence, you know?) The conversation is so great that I just want to break it down beat by beat.

"He's not armed, is he?"

"Well, not most of the time. It doesn't matter. You don't understand sir, this Heiwajima guy always has weapons. He can use whatever's close by."

"Even playground thugs will start throwing rocks or even pull up a Road Sign to look tough. We can handle that."

"No no, it's not like that. Heiwajima uses vending machines and guard rails."

"Oh come on, that's really amateur hour. What, he grabs people's heads and smashes them into stuff?"

"No, he throws them."

"Huh?"

"He throws vending machines. He snaps guard rails right out of the ground to use them as weapons. Stuff like that."

".........!?"

It's fantastic. Anyway, we're so used to seeing Shizuo as a "harmless disaster area," the kindest guy in the world until provoked, thanks to his weird cursed brain chemistry, that it's easy to forget that he's always been a key part of Izaya's plan to bring forth Valhalla. He wants Shizu-chan to be the queen to his king, using his brute strength to jumpstart a gang war by putting the poor guy in a position where he's forced to participate, and then Izaya can take the credit as the warlord behind it. (It's sort of a Mufasa-Scar situation, but with gangsters.) Shizuo manages to spider-monkey his way up a building and away from certain death this time, but if he wants to keep Awakusu away for good, he will have to get violent, or at least Izaya certainly thinks so. After years of building up Shizuo's unfair reputation, Izaya's finally landed at some deadly payoff for all his hard work, and this conflict makes up the most interesting part of the episode, because unfortunately last week's climactic tension has mostly been put on hold.

That's right, we've gone from an emotional high at the edge of a cliff to yet more transition material as Mikado and friends collectively take a step back from the razor's edge. Aoba decides to up the stakes of his ultimatum by threatening Anri, but before Mikado can make any decisions of his own, Celty and the Saitama bikers collectively barge in on the Blue Square's warehouse party. Aoba jumps the gun on declaring Mikado the Blue Square's leader to the whole crowd, which I'm sure won't come back to bite him in the ass later at all. Celty helps Mikado escape and reunite with Anri (and Akane!) in her valiant steed's carriage, but they're all just running away from a continually growing problem.

On the plus side, this episode looks way better than the show has looked for many weeks. Everyone's on-model, the animation is smooth and respectable, and the narrative underneath it is more cohesive as well. We may have backed off from the game-changing calamity that closed out last week, but all the story threads that crashed into each other then are still lumped into a compelling whole now. We know the stakes, and we know how everyone's motivations tie together, so now it's a smoother ride to the finish line. Russian assassins Slon&Vorona become confused when their two surviving marks (Celty and Anri) reunite in the city with this Mikado kid and the missing Akane. They simply look on in shock as the Saitama bikers and Awakusu syndicate start battling in the street over separate targets and mutual misunderstanding, (while the Blue Squares and Saitama bikers are also battling in a warehouse a few miles away!) Everyone's connected in Ikebukuro, Slon&Vorona! You should put down those weapons and join the lovefest! Unlike past episodes, at least we finally know where everyone stands and why, which makes the confusion of other characters much more fun.

My best guess is that Aoba and Izaya will be one another's undoing. I was mistaken in thinking they were allies last week. Each knows that the other is part of the same game, and their actions are mutually beneficial right in this present moment, but they're actually enemies on the 'Bukuro chessboard. Aoba and Izaya can't stand each other, even though they're so much alike, as Celty is quick to point out. We don't know why they're against each other yet, but Aoba's rage at realizing that Izaya sent Mikado a warning disguised as Masaomi (another thing I didn't pick up on until this week) betrays their mutual enmity. Masaomi himself is still out of the game for now. I gave him way too much credit in assuming he sent that private message to Mikado. Oh well. Feel free not to come back anytime soon, Kida-kun.

I think this episode is mostly a tightrope between two precipices in Durarara!!'s story, but it's a good one, filled with great moments to compensate for its lack of intensity following last week's plot bomb. My personal favorite moment was Izaya's horrible observation that Shizuo's growth as a person was "unnecessary." He laughs to himself that Shizuo is superhuman, so "growing as a person is just regressing as a superhuman," and his little Shizu-chan should just remain a stunted pawn to best serve his purposes. I hope everyone's favorite bartender gets the chance to stick it to the world's slimiest information broker soon. Show him what you're really made of, Heiwajima!

Rating: B+

Durarara!!×2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.